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Thursday 22 July 1999

The World Today is a comprehensive current affairs program which backgrounds, analyses, interprets and encourages debate on events and issues of interest and importance to all Australians. Below is the program summary with links to transcripts and audio (if available).

Kennedys mourn as John Jnr is prepared to return to sea

In an extraordinary departure from official pomp and ceremony, the Kennedy family has announced that the cremated remains of John F Kennedy Jnr are to be returned to the sea later tonight Australian time.

The bodies of John F Kennedy, his wife Caroline Bessette, and her sister Lauren, were recovered earlier this morning from the wreckage of the Piper plane that went down at the weekend, during its flight from New York to Hyannisport.

Howard crys out over States' hounding for health funding

The Prime Minister has issued a blunt warning to the States: stop bagging the Commonwealth over health funding. Australia's health system is the best in the world, he says.

State and Territory leaders meet tomorrow for a summit and top of the agenda is a push by some States for an overhaul of Medicare, and for public hospitals to be allowed to charge a fee, from those who can afford to pay.

Bank becoming more profitable

Australia's banks, it seems, are riding high on increasing profits. The National Australia Bank has earned a profit after tax of more than $2 billion in just the first nine months of the financial year. It's on target to make 2.7 billion dollars over the whole of its financial year.

Medical experts meet to dissect the depths of depression

Medical experts from around the world are in Melbourne to try and better understand an illness which is predicted to become the biggest killer of Australians within the next two decades. Depression already afflicts one in five of us, costing the community about $5 billion a year.

One leading expert says scientists may soon be able to pre-treat children who are identified as potential sufferers of depression later in their lives. Opening the Congress, Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett renewed his call for the establishment of a National Institute of Depression.

Online legal documents improve public access

Public access to legal documents has been made easier with today's launch of the country's first national legal collection on the Internet. The database contains legislation, case law as well as court and tribunal decisions available within hours of being handed down.

Tobacco companies reject AMA call for costs

Traditional owners put their stamp on didgeridoo

The haunting sounds of the didgeridoo of course over the past 10 years or so have become part of the world music scene thanks to the success of groups like Yothu Yindi. Now the first players of the instrument who call it actually a Yidarki are taking steps to assert themselves as its traditional owners.